Anchoring Bias

Assume you are tasked to evaluate two different vendors for launching a survey tool for your team members.

You receive proposals from 1) vendor that you used previously used for launching a attendance tracking tool. Also, this vendor is large and well know for its attendance tool. 2) a startup

All the evaluation data suggests that the startup's tool is better.

Would you select the startup or choose to ignore the data and go with the existing vendor?

Anchoring bias, also called confirmation bias, occurs when you consciously ignore the available data and search for the data that supports your preconceived views.

In the above example, by overcoming the anchoring bias, if startup's tool is selected, you would:

1. encourage team members to share objective facts during conversations
2. coach them to grow both personally and professionally
3. unleash creativity amongst the team members
4. train the team members to take calculated risks supported by data